Some thoughts on food...

I haven't actually seen the movie Food Inc. (although I plan to soon). I watched an Oprah show where they spoke about the film and showed some clips from the film. It was enough to make me start really thinking about our food intake.

Have you ever considered that most of what we put in our bodies isn't really food?

The preservatives, the food colorings, the additives, the sugar and high fructose corn syrup...the food that we all feed to our kids and ourselves.

It's no wonder that most of us suffer from daily ailments: allergies, headaches, bad periods, depression and anxiety, stomach aches. We aren't eating REAL FOOD!

How is it that I'll be 35 this year and I've been eating "fake food" almost my whole life?Let me quickly add that I am by no means an expert. I am the guiltiest of guilty. I thought we were doing pretty good because we don't keep soda in the house. I only buy 100% whole wheat bread. We drink 2% milk...BUT- we have a long ways to go.

We have started with our small garden. We decided on The Easy-Care Bag Garden. You simply set out purchased bags of topsoil, cut open the bags, and plant the seeds and seedlings right in the topsoil. By the second year, it should be fully functional as a food garden with 15 vegetables and 5 herbs producing steadily from early summer to late fall. Our garden right now should yield:

• carrots


• cucumbers


• spinach


• sugar snap peas


• 3 types of tomatoes


• blueberries


• strawberries


• a papaya tree


• basil


• thyme


• oregano


• rosemary


• sage
  
  A couple of other things we've done...replaced our milk with organic, bought the kids some all natural cereals (try the fruit-o's, they are good!), and introduced two more servings of vegetables a day.

Also, check out this book too. It'll get you thinking...I promise.

I'll be back soon with some art and sewing to show you.

I've been busy and I can't wait to share!:)

Gardening...Brand new territory

My husband and I are slowly bringing our dream of having a garden to fruition.
I mentioned slowly-right? :)

Lots of research and planning going on...

Today I got two small starter packs and my helpers were abundant...

All they need to hear is "dirt" and they are willing...

We did some tomato's...
and some carrots.

I have to admit I am alllllll over the place with my many projects. Spring will do that to you...inspire you to the brink of overflowing.

Blessed Spring is here!

February

Hi! Happy February. It's gray and dreary in these parts so I thought I'd add a little color into my life today:)

Remember last month I told you about One Small Change? Every month we try to make an environmental change in our household. I decided to do two...The first one was to bring more plants into the house. Plants in the home are beneficial to your health. When they "breathe in", they absorb carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen, and can also absorb other pollutants from the air.

Remember these paper whites we planted in January?

They grew very quickly! Every morning the kids woke up to see how much they had grown overnight. I wish we had actually measured them and made a lesson out of it. But it was nice to just see them enjoy the growth too. One morning we woke up and they were...done.

We cut the buds and enjoyed them in a vase for a few more days. I think another benefit of having house plants is that children relate to them. They want to take care of them and nurture them.

I definitely want to add more plants into our home. The top 9 air purifying plants are dragon trees, ivy, vicus, philodendrons, spider plants, peace lilies, ferns, chrysanthemums, and palms. I am going to continue to bring these into our house.

My other goal for the month was to make my own cloth pads for the month. I used the pattern from Amanda Soule's book Handmade Home. I only made four because I wanted to see how they worked, and I was very pleased with the results. I will be making more.

And my environmental change for February? To cut down on our use of paper towels. I cut up a bunch of rags from a couple of old towels and have talked to everyone about replacing our paper towel use with our recycled rags. This is such a habit that it may be a little difficult, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a great Monday friends!

Happy New Year 2010!!!

Happy happy New Year 2010! I hope everyone had a nice celebration. We had a nice quiet evening with steak and potato skins from this cookbook, some dinky fireworks that the kids loved, and a bedtime promptly after midnight. Not very exciting but still nice...:)
You know I'm a sucker for lists and resolutions. I actually do them all year long but love the fresh clean slate of a New Year. I'm still sticking with my 35 before 35 list, but I'm also trying this challenge too:
How does it work? On January first (or soon after) you will decide on what change you want to make for that month and blog about it. For the entire month you will be conscious of this decision and follow through with what you decided on. Then on Feb. 1 you will write another blog post explaining how the month went with your new green change and also write about what you will change for that month. You will do the same on March 1st and April 1st, then will have one final post on April 22nd listing all the changes you made and the differences it made in your life.

For the month of January I am actually going to implement two changes. The first one is to bring in some more plants to our home. When we put away the Christmas decorations I planted these paper whites and Ava helped me decorate them with some burlap scraps. We used stamps and a recycled envelope to create the inspirational messages.

I'll be sure to show pictures February 1st of a few more plants we bring in.

The other green goal I have for the month is to replace my monthly pads by making cloth ones. I'll be sure to fill you in on that one too!:) (tmi?)

Maybe you'll consider joining in this challenge? These tiny changes can add up to an awful lot!

Have a wonderful weekend! I am going to soak in every last minute of everyone being home before work and school start again on Monday. (that'll be nice too...a quiet house for the first time in weeks!)